Post by skybluu on Oct 29, 2007 4:44:10 GMT 10
The Next Chapter after the Last
Chapter # Twenty-Six
Battles Are Won Before They Are Fought
Discipline That Prepares Us
The whole Bible and all past history unite to teach that battles are always won before the armies take the field. The converse of this is true also. Battles are never lost the day they are fought. They are lost the day or the year before; the results merely become manifest when the armies meet. If we were wise enough, we could predict without fail the outcome of any battle, for the law of causation determines it always. Lot fled from Sodom with the tattered remnant of his family and left all his property behind to perish in the flames, but his loss did not occur the night he escaped the burning city; it occurred the day he lifted up his eyes and saw all the well-watered plains of Jordan and coveted them. On a certain night Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss, but his tragic downfall did not take place that night; it only became evident. For months he had been undermining his own soul by filching from the meager funds entrusted to his care. He had gotten himself ready for the kind of death he died by the kind of life he had lived. His betrayal and suicide might have been accurately predicted by anyone who could have known what had been going on inside him during the days before the betrayal. Preparation is vital. Let this be noted by everyone. We can seek God today and get prepared to meet temptation tomorrow; but if we meet the enemy without first having met God, the outcome is not conjectural; the issue is already decided. We can only lose. We do well to imitate the ant who takes advantage of the summer to get ready for the winter.
Prayer
You discipline me for my good, Lord, so that I may share in Your holiness. That discipline sometimes seems exceedingly hard. Yet You know what I need because You know what is coming.
Scrip-ture
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
— Hebrews 12:11
Thought
Huge victories and shattering defeats do not occur in a vacuum or in a moment of time. Rather, they are like a long burning wick of a bomb. Victories and defeats result from discipline or lack of it over a period of time which God uses to prepare us.
Chapter # Twenty-Six
Battles Are Won Before They Are Fought
Discipline That Prepares Us
The whole Bible and all past history unite to teach that battles are always won before the armies take the field. The converse of this is true also. Battles are never lost the day they are fought. They are lost the day or the year before; the results merely become manifest when the armies meet. If we were wise enough, we could predict without fail the outcome of any battle, for the law of causation determines it always. Lot fled from Sodom with the tattered remnant of his family and left all his property behind to perish in the flames, but his loss did not occur the night he escaped the burning city; it occurred the day he lifted up his eyes and saw all the well-watered plains of Jordan and coveted them. On a certain night Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss, but his tragic downfall did not take place that night; it only became evident. For months he had been undermining his own soul by filching from the meager funds entrusted to his care. He had gotten himself ready for the kind of death he died by the kind of life he had lived. His betrayal and suicide might have been accurately predicted by anyone who could have known what had been going on inside him during the days before the betrayal. Preparation is vital. Let this be noted by everyone. We can seek God today and get prepared to meet temptation tomorrow; but if we meet the enemy without first having met God, the outcome is not conjectural; the issue is already decided. We can only lose. We do well to imitate the ant who takes advantage of the summer to get ready for the winter.
Prayer
You discipline me for my good, Lord, so that I may share in Your holiness. That discipline sometimes seems exceedingly hard. Yet You know what I need because You know what is coming.
Scrip-ture
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
— Hebrews 12:11
Thought
Huge victories and shattering defeats do not occur in a vacuum or in a moment of time. Rather, they are like a long burning wick of a bomb. Victories and defeats result from discipline or lack of it over a period of time which God uses to prepare us.